Having a smart sideboard provided Mini_Gnarls access to potent threats in the control matchup.

Player Mini_Gnarls won the Standard event’s top spot playing a mono-red aggro deck. His final round opponent, Vault2, played an Esper control deck that proved to be just a step slower.

Standard Game One Early in game one, Mini_Gnarls saw both a Firedrinker Satyr and a Rakdos Cackler take their Last Breath before they could deal any damage. This didn’t give Vault2 too much breathing room, though, as a second Cackler and back-to-back copies of Ash Zealot quickly reduced his life total to 8. Digging for an answer, Vault2 spent consecutive turns on casting Sphinx’s Revelation. Hoping to finally take control of the game, Vault2 then put his faith in the soldier-generating powers of Elspeth, Sun’s Champion. Seeing his opponent tap out to summon this powerful ally, Mini_Gnarls seized the opportunity and unleashed two Lightning Strikes targeting Vault2. This meant that next turn using Firefist Striker’s battalion trigger, Mini_Gnarls could easily take the game.

Limited Game Two In the second game of the match, fukusin777 was the one with the strong start helping his Cavalry Pegasus successfully complete the Ordeal of Heliod by removing Esrin’s Vaporkin with an Eye Gouge. Things looked progressively darker for Esrin as the life total gap widened to 35-1 before he was able to stabilize behind creatures like the monstrous Nessian Asp and the life gain of Horizon Chimera. The life totals even closed to a much more reasonable 18-2 before fukusin777 was able to put the game away with several well timed activations of Scholar of Athreos.

Standard Final Game In the final game of the match, fukusin777 seemed ready to take control again early with a Fleshmad Steed enchanted with Ordeal of Heliod. Though this time we saw Esrin’s Griptide used to solve the early big-creature problem. Undeterred, fukusin777 was able to get an airborne assault going courtesy of Ornitharch and Cavalry Pegasus. On turn 10, the fliers proved too much for Esrin to hold off, and he conceded, making Fukusin777 the Born of the Gods Limited Championship Winner!